TEACHER MATERIALS UNIT 6 GUIDE
Table of Contents
Learning Outcomes 2
Key Concepts 2
Misconceptions and Teaching Challenges 3
Vocabulary 3
Lesson and Content Overview 5
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 6 GUIDE 1 TEACHER MATERIALS
Unit 6—Early Humans
Unit 6 Driving Question: What makes humans different from other species?
Learning Outcomes 1. Describe human evolution, using evidence and connection to other species of mammals. 2. Explain whether or not symbolic language makes humans different. 3. Describe how early humans lived. 4. Explain collective learning. 5. Understand what scholars from multiple disciplines know about a topic and the questions they can ask to gain an understanding of the topic from an integrated perspective.
Key Concepts How did our early ancestors evolve? Students tackle this topic in the first lesson and learn about human evolution. The concentration here will be on how the genus Homo evolved from the order of primates into modern humans, or Homo sapiens. The next lesson reveals how the story of human evolution has many contributors, including archaeologists, anthropologists, and primatologists. Scientists and scholars from across a multitude of disciplines have worked on the topic of human evolution for many years to piece together a history of our species using verifiable evidence, such as fossil remains. One of this unit’s main focal points is the importance of collective learning and symbolic language. It is the combination of these two human feats that separates us from other species in the animal kingdom; it is what makes us different.
Human Evolution All modern humans belong to a single species known as Homo sapiens. We’re also classified in the order of primates, the class of mammals, and the kingdom of animals. Biologists and paleontologists have worked together for years to correctly classify thousands of species. They’ve also been able to partly reconstruct our human ancestry by comparing fossils and identifying genetic relationships between living species by comparing their DNA. Genetic comparisons between chimpanzees and Homo sapiens suggest that we shared a common ancestor about 7 million years ago. However, unlike chimps, humans are hominines—apes that walk upright on two legs. Humans are the only surviving hominines in the world today, but in the past, there were others in this family including members of the genus Australopithecus, as well as other members of the genus Homo, including the species Homo habilis and Homo erectus.
Collective Learning and Symbolic Language While early primates and hominines were like us in many ways, we have no evidence to suggest that their behaviors or the technologies they used changed significantly during their time on Earth. Like most animal species, they seem to have been limited in the number of ways they used their environment to produce the energy and resources needed to survive. Our species is different because our ancestors kept developing new ways of using the resources available in their environment. We are the only species that is able to do this without changing
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 6 GUIDE 2 TEACHER MATERIALS
genetically, which means that we can adapt to changing conditions much faster than other species. The key to this is our use of symbolic language to share information and pass it on to future generations. It is our ability to collectively learn that allows Homo sapiens to migrate and flourish in all corners of the Earth. Many species of mammals and birds share information through mating calls and warning signals, but their language is not efficient enough to allow collective memories to accumulate information over long periods of time. Human language enables us to exchange information so precisely and rapidly that it accumulates in the member of entire groups, gradually increasing the store of knowledge available to each community.
How Did Early Humans Live? In order to reconstruct how early humans lived an interdisciplinary approach is required. Archaeologists use the remains of individuals (including their skulls and parts of their skeletons) as well as the remains of things they ate, used, and made (such as stone tools). Anthropologists study modern human societies that are likely to be similar to societies of the Paleolithic era in order to learn about their technologies, social organization, and ideas about the world. Primatologists also gather helpful evidence: they study our close relatives, such as chimpanzees, to see what can be inferred about the earliest human societies. No single source of evidence is perfect, but together, the work of these scholars gives us an idea about the basic patterns of life in the Paleolithic era.
Misconceptions and Teaching Challenges
The Human-Chimp Connection A common student misconception is that humans descended directly from chimps. They didn’t. While humans and chimps would most certainly be classified as genetic cousins as we share 98% of the same DNA structures and a common ancestor, we did not evolve from them. Humans and chimps separated on the evolutionary tree approximately 7 million years ago. The evolution of both chimps and humans took place in Africa, however, it was only members of the genus Homo who began migrating out of Africa.
Vocabulary anthropology — The scientific study of human beings and human culture, including beliefs, customs, and archaeological records.
archaeology — The scientific study of human activity in the past, primarily by finding and examining objects that humans created or interacted with.
australopithecines — An early group of hominine species with brains similar in size to those of chimpanzees; they flourished in Africa between 4 and 1 million years ago.
bipedalism — The ability to walk on two rear limbs (legs). collective learning — The ability to share, preserve, and build upon ideas over time. culture — The customs, values, beliefs, and general patterns of behavior of a particular group of people. foraging — Relying on wild (uncultivated) plants and animals for sustenance; hunting and gathering. Foraging was the dominant way of life during the Paleolithic era.
fossils — The preserved remains of organisms from the distant past. Fossils are usually mineralized or hardened remains of the organisms themselves, but can also include traces of an organism’s behavior (for example, footprints) that have been preserved. BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 6 GUIDE 3 TEACHER MATERIALS
genealogy — The study of lineage and family history. genetics — The scientific study of how traits are inherited. hominines — All bipedal species in the human line since it diverged from the common ancestor with chimpanzees; first appeared 8 to 5 million years ago. The only survivors of this line are Homo sapiens, or modern humans.
Homo ergaster or Homo erectus — A hominine species that originated in Africa around two million years ago and migrated into Eurasia, reaching as far as China and Java. Almost as tall as modern humans, their brains were larger than those of Homo habilis, and they may have been able to control fire. Homo erectus and Homo ergaster may have been the same species.
Homo habilis — A hominine relative of human beings that appeared in Africa between 2 and 3 million years ago, and was able to make simple tools.
Homo sapiens — The scientific name for our species, which is thought to have evolved in Africa between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago.
marsupials — A group of mammals whose young are born in an undeveloped state, and then develop and nurse in a maternal pouch.
migration — Movement of animals from one place to another, often in search of more abundant resources. Neanderthal — A species of hominine very closely related to our own species, Homo sapiens, that went extinct roughly 35,000 to 30,000 years ago. Genetic research shows that the DNA of people with Eurasian ancestry is partly (a few percent) Neanderthal. Though Neanderthals have sometimes been portrayed as brutish or stupid, they were probably very similar to Homo sapiens, and some experts even consider them part of our species.
nomadic — Describes a way of life in which people move from place to place rather than settling in a single location; movements are often dictated by climate and availability of food sources.
Paleolithic era — A long, early era of human history that featured the creation and use of many different types of stone tools; literally means “Old Stone Age.”
paleontology — The study of prehistoric life on Earth using the fossil record. primate — A member of the order of mammals appearing between 60 million and 70 million years ago that is characterized by a relatively large brain, hands with multiple movable fingers and nails instead of claws, and eyes positioned on the front of the skull to enable stereoscopic vision.
symbiosis — An interdependent relationship between two different species that live in close contact with one another; may be beneficial to both species, or beneficial to one but neutral or harmful to the other.
symbolic language —A powerful form of communication; much more powerful than communication by other animals because it can convey much more information, much more precisely. Symbolic language makes collective learning possible because it allows humans to share huge amounts of accumulated information generation to generation.
taxonomy — The science of classifying different forms of life based upon distinguishing characteristics.
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 6 GUIDE 4 TEACHER MATERIALS
Lesson and Content Overview
Lesson name Lesson description Content Activity 6.0—How Our Ancestors We might share a lot with • Watch: Threshold 6 – • Opening: Early Ancestors Evolved our primate cousins, but Humans and Collective • Vocab Activity: Memorization our bigger brains, our ability Learning • Activity: Evolution Comic to walk upright, and other • Read: “Lucy and the physical “improvements” are all Leakeys” • Closing: Change Over Time adaptations that make humans Essay unique. • Read: “Jane Goodall”
6.1—Ways of Knowing: Early We’re obsessed with • Watch: Intro to Anthropology • Opening: DQ Notebook Humans understanding the roots of • Watch: Intro to Archaeology • Activity: What Do You Know? who we are as a species. What Do You Ask? Anthropologists, archaeologists, and primatologists are the most • Activity: Historos Cave obsessed, as they work to paint • Closing: Little Big History a picture of early human life. Kickoff
6.2—Collective Learning Our talent for preserving and • Read: “Collective Learning” • Opening: Collective Learning sharing information, passing it (Part 1) Snap Judgment from one generation to the next, • Watch: Common Man – H2 • Activity: Claim Testing – has made us the most powerful Collective Learning species on the planet. • Watch: Early Evidence of Collective Learning • Vocab Activity: Comprehension/Application • Closing: DQ Notebook
6.3—How Did the First Our Paleolithic ancestors • Watch: How Did the First • Activity: Hunter Gatherer Humans Live? were foraging nomads who Humans Live? Menu eventually migrated across six • Read: “Foraging” • Activity: Human Migration continents. These early humans Patterns made tools, used fire, and • Watch: From Foraging to sustained themselves in diverse Food Shopping • Activity: Little Big History – environmental conditions. • Watch: Genealogy and Choosing Your Focus Human Ancestry • Closing: Investigation 6
Investigation: How does The investigation in this unit • Communication among • Venn diagram language make humans focuses on how language is bacteria and honeybees • A four- to five-paragraph used by humans and by other different? • Bird calls and songs essay that will be used as a animals. A variety of texts will writing assessment. help students investigate if and • Language development in how human language makes us chimpanzees and in human different. children
BIG HISTORY PROJECT / UNIT 6 GUIDE 5 TEACHER MATERIALS
Lesson name Lesson description Content Activity Additional content Additional content items, • Human Ancestors (gallery) including image galleries, • What Makes Humans can be used to augment Different? (gallery) lessons or customize your own unit. • Making Stone Tools (video) • Collective Learning at Scale (video) • How Did the First Humans Live? (gallery) • How Did Our Ancestors Evolve? (video) • What Makes Humans Different? (video) • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (reading) • Migrations and Technological Creativity (video) • Learning tips • Random facts • Related galleries, images, websites, and videos • Web links Assessments Unit 6 includes a required • Investigation Writing • Glossary Challenge Investigation Writing • Unit Quiz (optional) assessment, the second of three such assessments in the course.
Actions The Unit Log is required for • Unit Log every unit.
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